Brian Palmer | Would James Madison have agreed with Edward Snowden?

12:30 AM,
Dec. 19, 2013

U.S. President James Madison in a portrait by artist Gilbert Stuart

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Brian Palmer
| Slate

NEW YORK - U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon criticized the National Security Agency's metadata collection program this week in a lengthy ruling, declaring it "almost Orwellian" and "likely unconstitutional." Leon concluded that, "Surely, such a program infringes on 'that degree of privacy' that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The founders didn't have telephones or email. What areas were included in their conception of privacy?

Definitely their homes, probably their saddlebags and perhaps their ...